Posted on 28 July 2011
OPINION
RESERVATION
The lesser among the Dalits
Dominic Emmanuel explains why converted Christians need reservation
Illustration: Mayanglambam Dinesh
CHRISTIANS OF Dalit origin along with many Archbishops and Bishops are
currently on a relay hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, and
will end their relay fast of three days today with a march from the
Ramlila grounds to parliament. Though the government doesn't like
hunger strikes after the Anna Hazare and the Baba Ramdev episodes,
Christian leaders have still decided to go ahead with the strike
because their demand goes back 61 years. The struggle of Dalit
Christians and Muslims seeking the status of SCheduled Castes started
after the Constitution (SC) Presidential Order 1950, para 3, removed
the privileges given to SCheduled Caste converts who were not Hindus.
But even though the privileges were restored to Sikhs (1956) and to
Buddhists (1990), Christians and Muslims, who have been pressing upon
successive governments for 61 years, have not been granted that and
there seems to be little hope for them.
Notwithstanding the Supreme Court 1985 case of Soosai versus Union of
India, a PIL was filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation
represented by Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan in March 2004,
backed by firm data from numerous studies to show how converted Dalits
to Christianity continued to suffer the same fate as before. The
Supreme Court then asked for the government's response, which was
submitted by the then Attorney General Milon Banerjee in February
2005, saying, "It is (a) matter of policy and legislation and the
courts should keep out of it." Shockingly for the Christians, he also
informed the court that the National Democratic Alliance government
had rejected a similar request in 2002. Unrelenting, the court
persisted saying that since, according to the petitioner, his
fundamental right was being denied it had to intervene.
Since then, the government has been dragging its feet in the matter.
And to think that the Congress-led UPA1 and UPA2 are pro-minorities.
It is most disgusting to hear what the Attorney General has been
telling the government. The Supreme Court's query and the government's
response has again exposed the UPA's bluff, particularly of the
Congress, which has been deceiving Christians on granting SCheduled
Caste status to converted Christians of Dalit origin. The Congress has
been lying to the Christian leadership for over four decades.
Recently, the law ministry, most preposterously, cited again the 1985
judgment favouring the status quo. Similarly, before the court was to
hear the plea on February 24, Attorney General GE Vahanvati, briefing
the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, said, 'many complicated
legal issues were involved' and currently 'no decision was called
for'. But in every meeting with Christian heads, Congress leaders have
guaranteed positive action.
Related
Dalits, like flies to feudal lords
Dalits not welcome in IIT madras
Converted dalits get no justice
Do Vahanvati and the UPA suffer from dementia? How could they so
quickly forget the recommendations of the Ranganath Misra Commission,
which was set up after a cabinet decision for this very purpose? Over
and over again the Christian community has been producing documents to
convince the government about the illegality and unconstitutionality
of the 1950 order. And the fast over the past three days is to once
again remind the government that during the 1996 Congress-led
government, the cabinet had cleared this demand of the Christians and
that a Bill was introduced in parliament by Sitaram Kesri, then
minister of social justice. Ironically, the Bill could not be
diSCussed because 'it was brought too late in the session'. That the
readymade Bill was never again tabled seals the lie of the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has at least been honest in stating
it would never support such legislation, though neither the Congress
nor the BJP come clean on why such affirmative action is being denied
to a community not trained to burn buses or block railway tracks, and
one which makes for a negligible vote bank. After coming to power in
2004, UPA1 set up the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic
Minorities (NCRLM), headed by Ranganath Misra. Since the commission's
recommendations were positive, the government sat over it for eighteen
months. Many demonstrations and RTIs later, it tabled the report in
parliament in December 2009.
EVEN BEFORE the NCRLM report, various ngos had supplied ample data to
the government establishing that even after conversion, the converted
continued to suffer the diSCrimination they suffered before
conversion. In 1984, the Supreme Court summarised thus: "The mark of
caste does not seem to really disappear even after some generations
after conversion. In Andhra Pradesh and in Tamil Nadu, there are
several thousands of Christian families whose forefathers became
Christians and who, though they profess the Christian religion,
nonetheless observe the practice of caste. There are Christian Reddys,
Christian Khammas, Christian Nadars, Christian Adi Dravidas and so on.
The practice of their caste is so rigorous that there are
intermarriages with Hindus of the same caste but not with Christians
of another caste".
Again in the judgment of Indra Sawhney versus the Union of India
(1991) concerning Mandal Commission, Justice Jeevan Reddy had ruled:
"What emerges is backward class, for the purposes of clause (4) of
Article 16. The concept of caste in this behalf is not confined to
castes among Hindus. It extends to castes, wherever they obtain as a
fact, irrespective of religious sanction for such practice." And much
before all this, Mahatma Gandhi had advocated in Harijan, December 26,
1936, the right to reservation for Dalit Christians. Ambedkar held the
same view.
About 60% Christians belong to the SCheduled Castes, socially deprived
in society and within the Church too. Franklyn Ceasar, one of the
petitioners to the Supreme Court, says, "The Dalit Christian is thrice
diSCriminated against compared to the Hindu Dalit. First, by the Hindu
community from which they came; second, by the higher caste Christians
to the community where they goes, and finally by the government, which
denies job reservations because of conversion". With Articles 14
(equality before law), 15 (prohibition of diSCrimination on grounds of
religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth) 16 (equality of
opportunities), the Constitution leaves no room either for the
government or the courts to deny fundamental rights to Dalit
Christians. Is the support to the cause by 22 political parties,
including UPA allies, not enough? What more can Christians do? The
trust that the Christian leadership had in the Congress is fast
becoming a thing of the past.
Dominic Emmanuel is spokesperson of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese.
frdominic@gmail
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